Airport terminal funds ungrounded

Thursday

The town and Massachusetts Aeronautics Commission were finally on the same page this week in their months-long negotiations for $1.7 million in new terminal design funds.

Town, MAC agree on grant language

The town and Massachusetts Aeronautics Commission were finally on the same page this week in their months-long negotiations for $1.7 million in new terminal design funds.

The grant was approved for the terminal project in December 2007, but Town Manager John Klimm would not sign what had been standard grant assurance language for MAC. The project was effectively stalled for the past six months while the town and MAC worked things out.

In particular, it was a section that appeared to bind the town with respect to the airport commission’s authority.

With an active elected charter commission and the topic of the airport commission’s authority already on the floor, Klimm said he couldn’t accept the grant with such a condition. The past six months were spent trying to find compromise language to allow the grant to be accepted and the terminal designs to move forward. Until Tuesday afternoon, that hadn’t happened.

Had the town accepted the initial grant language, and the charter commission altered the airport commission in some fashion, it would be possible for MAC to seek reimbursement of the grant amount.

At press time, the town and MAC had not finalized the document and its particulars were not made public. The town attorney’s office was still reviewing the final language to ensure it meets the town’s standards.

The design grant was the leading edge of MAC grants for the airport, with a larger $16 million grant for the ultimate construction of the new $32 million terminal in the wings. The goal was to have language that would carry forward to cover that grant as well.

Assistant Town Manager Tom Lynch worked with the legal department on the grant’s language. He credited the intervention of state Senator Rob O'Leary, D-Barnstable, and Senate President Therese Murray, D-Plymouth, for moving the process along.

At an April airport commission meeting, manager Quincy “Doc” Mosby said that the indication from MAC was that the larger construction grant would not be rolled forward if the grant assurances were not worked out by “early to mid June.”

O’Leary said there remains a question on whether the construction grant was in jeopardy. “I think the threat of it was out there, but it’s not clear to me,” he said. “It concerned me, but it's hard to know for sure.”

O’Leary said it is up to the discretion of MAC whether to roll things forward at the end of the fiscal year.

Attempts to clarify whether the construction funds would have been pulled were unsuccessful with MAC spokesman Adam Hurtubise.

After an exchange of e-mails, Hurtubise wrote, “Rather than discuss potential consequences, we're pleased that we've resolved the issue.”

O’Leary said that his immediate concern was to solve the grant language problem for Barnstable and that he had not considered the appropriateness of the disputed grant language for other airports.

“What did Lincoln say? ‘Only one war at a time,’” O’Leary said.

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